Regal, IFTA, CNC Launch Pilot to Lift Theater Attendance — SkimNews
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- Regal Cinemas, the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), and the CNC launched the "Future of Distribution" pilot Monday at the Lumière Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, handing under-used screens and timeslots to a neutral programmer with no obligation to studio relationships or circuit priorities.
- The pilot gets underway in selected markets in Q4 2025, with an initial findings report scheduled for the first half of 2027.
- North American theater admissions totaled roughly 770 million in 2025, down about 37% from 2019, while screen counts held roughly steady and sector occupancy runs at 11 to 15%.
- Five principles govern participation: venues opt in, existing windows and release schedules stay intact, oversight is independent and time-limited, only otherwise-dark capacity is used, and all participating venues receive the results.
- The programmer's brief spans wide releases, documentaries, repertory titles, and special events — testing whether programming innovation alone, without new films, new screens, or new subsidies, can measurably lift admissions.
- The pilot frames the industry's slump as a mismatch between films, venues, and showtimes rather than a shortage of audience.
Why it matters: If a neutral programmer can lift attendance on otherwise-dark screens with no new content, it isolates scheduling — not content or pricing — as the missing lever behind the post-2019 decline and pressures exhibitors and distributors to rethink how they allocate prime slots. A negative result would force the industry to confront the 11–15% occupancy figure and revisit assumptions about the theatrical audience.
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